As for using other boards, It all depends. For example suppose you wish to experiment with RPI3 talking to USB2AX. You simply need to provide 5v to the RPI and it will power the USB2AX through the USB.

I have also built my own RPI shields which I have used to emulate part or all of the Arbotix Pro, which have their own DC to DC converter that I used to power the RPI through the expansion connector.

Earlier when I was still doing stuff with the HROS1 and Arbotix Pro. I was also experimenting with having the Arbotix Pro be able to talk using second serial port on Arbotix Pro where I then connected it up to the Hardware Serial port that is part of the expansion connector. (Actually I was probably doing it using Odroid). This requires the usage of a hardware Programmer and an adapter to make this work.

Hopefully some of the other members have some other ideas. I am also not sure if others like @r3n33 has done much with the HROS1 using RPI or has done most of her work using the Edison?

Edit: Forgot to mention. I believe there was another user who had some better luck on the RPI by using a different image on it (don't remember if it was Debian or Ubuntu or ...), but it had a Real time Kernel enabled on it....

I don't have problems with the pi, my problems happen on both the pi and edison. All the described errors have been reproduced with both boards.

I read the other threads, I also noticed a weird formula for calculating the timeout and played around with the values but still no luck.
I also tried your version of the hros1 framework and had the same result. The tcdrain on the timeout was already merged to their code.

So basically nothing changed in the last few days, still impossible to use that controller in any way. The only sensible solution I see is to use another controller (reinventing the wheel in the process)..

It is possible they sent you a second bad board. I would probably try to get them to send you another board and if possible see if they can verify they can talk to the board with a pi and/or Edison.

Also I was frustrated enough with some similar issues with PI, that I started hacking on the Arbotix Pro code to allow me to bypass the USB (FTDI chip) and talk directly to another UART on the board. My version of the code is up at: https://github.com/KurtE/ArbotixPro/...usart2-talk-pc But the last time I touched it was in Feb of 2016, so I don't remember all the details, like which pins worked. But that might be up on some thread up here.

Also as Trossen did not put any form of boot loader on the board, you need to program it using a programmer. Looks like they have these in stock, http://www.trossenrobotics.com/pro-programming-kit. I purchased mine before they offered them and I think I purchased it from Digikey (2 parts, the programmer and the adapter board)

If they managed to send me two consecutive bad boards, maybe this platform isn't very stable and doesn't fill me with confidence in the long term
Also they were cheap enough to send me the replacement board by US mail, which took 3 weeks

no. Same error. Also tried downloading the dxl monitor code from robotis on my laptop. It doesn't see any ids on the dynamixel bus - not even id 200 for the controller. I have gone back to Trossen support to ask them whether they are able to make this work on any of their boards. No reply as yet.

I'm in touch with their support now. They have acknowledged the issue and are now actively looking at this. All boards seem to be affected. I think its a firmware issue. I'm cautiously optimistic that we're now moving in the right direction.